News & Stories

José Antonio Ocampo: The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics

Posted Jan 27 2012

 

José Antonio Ocampo, director of SIPA's Economic and Political Development concentration, published The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics, co-edited with Jaime Ros.


The Handbook includes contributions from SIPA faculty Maria Victoria Murillo, who co-authored the chapter "Latin American Labor Reforms: Evaluating Risk and Security," and Miguel Urquiola, who wrote the chapter "Education."


Latin America has been central to the main debates on development economics, ranging from the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and the importance of geography versus institutions in development, to debates on the effects of trade, trade openness and protection on growth and income distribution. Despite increasing interest in the region, there are few English language books on Latin American economics. The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics aims to fill this gap.



Part One looks at long-term issues, including the institutional roots of Latin America's underdevelopment, the political economy of policy making, the rise, decline and re-emergence of alternative paradigms, and the environmental sustainability of the development pattern.


Part Two considers macroeconomic topics, including the management of capital account booms and busts, the evolution and performance of exchange rate regimes, the advances and challenges of monetary policies and financial development, and the major fiscal policy issues confronting the region, including a comparison of Latin American fiscal accounts with those of the OECD.


Part Three analyzes the region's economies in global context, particularly the role of Latin America in the world trade system and the effects of dependence on natural resources (characteristic of many countries of the region) on growth and human development. It reviews the trends of foreign direct investment, the opportunities and challenges raised by the emergence of China as buyer of the region's commodities and competitor in the world market, and the transformation of the Latin America from a region of immigration to one of massive emigration.


Part Four deals with matters of productive development. At the aggregate level, it analyzes issues of technological catching up and divergence as well as different perspectives on the poor productivity and growth performance of the region during recent decades. At the sectoral level, it looks at agricultural policies and performance, the problems and prospects of the energy sector, and the effects on growth of lagging infrastructure development.


Part Five looks at the social dimensions of development; it analyzes the evolution of income inequality, poverty, and economic insecurity in the region, the evolution of labor markets and the performance of the educational sector, as well as the evolution of social assistance programs and social security reforms in the region.